Assessment of Engineering Characteristics for Black Cotton Soil with Addition of Layered Stone Dust

Abstract

Soil is the base for any civil engineering structures. One of the most significant challenges that geotechnical engineers encounter is building any form of foundation over weak or soft soil. Because high-rise buildings could suffer severe damage, it is imperative to enhance the load bearing capacity of such soils. A number of techniques have been employed to amplify the bearing capacity of certain types of soils, including soil stabilisation using substances like plastic, cement, fly ash, sawdust, rice husk ash, lime, and so forth. Such materials were incorporated into the black cotton soil (BC) in varying concentrations to improve its properties. In the current study, stone dust (SD) is supplemented in a layered pattern with BC soil. The engineering properties were evaluated experimentally using three tests: consolidation, falling head permeability, and swell pressure. Comparing the results to conventional black cotton soil, it was found that adding stone dust in a layered pattern enhanced permeability by 70% and consolidation by 50%. The findings show that the swelling features of black cotton soil can be reduced by incorporation of stone dust and the component layers of the such soil can be used as a material for backfill in construction projects.

Keywords

• black cotton soil
• consolidation
• permeability
• stone dust
• swell pressure